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Tripwire
Y Tripwire is the third book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child. It was published in 1999 by Putnam in America and Bantam in the United Kingdom. It is written in the third person. Description Reacher’s lazy anonymity in Key West is shattered by a stranger who comes to town searching for him but ends up dead. Following the man’s trail back to New York, he finds a bewildered, elderly couple still mourning an all-American son lost in Vietnam, a woman Reacher couldn’t forget, and a most vicious opponent. Plot The prologue describes Victor Truman "Hook" Hobie's carefully planned escape route in the event of somebody discovering his "really big, well-guarded secret". His "early-warning system" consists of geographically-located "tripwires". The first is eleven thousand miles from home and the second is six thousand miles out. His response to their activation would be to tie up loose ends, cash in, transfer his assets, and flee the country. Over thirty years of quiet success have made him feel somewhat secure. But he did not expect both alerts to arrive on the same day. The story then begins with Jack Reacher working two jobs in Key West and bumping into a private investigator, Costello, who happens to be looking for him on behalf of a client named Mrs. Jacob, a name Reacher does not recognise. Later on, while Reacher is working his night job as a bouncer in a strip club, two very suspicious-looking men also make inquiries about his location. Reacher attempts to follow them but instead finds Costello murdered on the sidewalk. Jack then flies to New York to find out why Costello was looking for him and why he was killed for it. After finding Costello's office ransacked, Reacher gets the contact information for Mrs. Jacob and arrives in the middle of a funeral for his old mentor and friend, Col. Leon Garber. His daughter, Jodie Garber-Jacob, turns out to be the mystery client. Reacher and Jodie follow Costello's trail, uncovering information on her father's last project, an investigation for the elderly Mr. and Mrs. Hobie on the whereabouts of their son Victor, reported missing-in-action years ago in Vietnam. They discover that the Hobies had been tricked into giving their life savings to a con man and gun runner named Rutter, who poses as a fake military liaison to families of MIA soldiers. "Hook" Hobie becomes aware of their investigation, and tries to hunt them down. After forcing Rutter to return the money he stole, Reacher and Jodie visit the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, which leads them to the military Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, a special facility that identifies the forensic remains of soldiers. They then learn that Hobie served in the war as a helicopter pilot until he was shot down. However, it becomes clear that Hobie died in the crash, and that another soldier named Carl Allen assumed his identity in order to escape prosecution for fragging a superior officer. Severely burned by the crash, he left his own tags behind to fool investigators and had his right hand, lost in the helicopter crash, replaced with a hook. Under his new identity, Allen amasses a fortune as a "moneylender", before establishing himself as a legitimate businessman who offers assistance to financially troubled firms unable to get loans. However, his real objective is to seize control of their assets, using torture and violence to force his clients to agree to his terms. Despite being aware that Reacher's investigation could expose his crimes, Allen decides to complete one final job: the takeover of a bankrupt multimillion-dollar company owned by Chester and Marilyn Stone. Allen and his men take them hostage, but Marilyn is able to stall them before her husband signs over his company. Jodie is called back to New York by her law firm to handle the Stone deal, but ends up being captured along with another private investigator posing as the Stone's lawyer, forcing Reacher to come to her rescue. He manages to kill Allen and his men, but sustains a seemingly fatal bullet wound to his chest. At the hospital, however, a doctor discovers that, due to the arduous physical labour he has done digging pools in Key West, his pectoral muscle was so thick the bullet did not make it past his rib cage. Reacher is then visited (while convalescing) by the Hobie family to thank him for restoring their son's good name. Appearances Category:Novels